Monday, September 13, 2010

fix yr stick part II

the long-awaited part II: glassing and sanding the surfboard repair job, do-it-yrself...

1) after sanding down the area the repair (or newly Q-celled ding) you will want to tape the area off with painter's tape, and maybe even use some newspaper to cover the parts of the board you don't want resin drips to fall on...

2) cut your glass a little bigger than the taped off area. you will be cutting the glass after the resin "kicks" (starts to harden). lay all of your glass down and make sure you are ready to go before mixing your resin batch.

you will want to mix up your polyester resin and MEKP at a ratio that works in the amount of ambient heat you are dealing with. here in newport i mix up a pretty "hot" batch, that is to say, more catalyst than one would use in hawaii or san clemente. i use 56 drops of MEKP per 4 ounces of polyester resin. there are charts all over the internet. you can and should get familiar with the different ratios. if i am using surfacing agent, which is crucial for any layer one plans to sand, i use about the same amount of surfacing agent as i do MEKP. remember, if you don't add surfacing agent, you cant really sand your glass down: it will just turn into a gummy mess. but if you plan on laminating several layers of glass, then don't use surfacing agent in your mix, just use catalyst (MEKP) and resin... blah, blah, blah...

3) mix up your hot batch and spread it over the glass making sure to saturate the glass fibers completely, and to avoid letting air bubbles get under the fiberglass. air bubbles = weak places that you will have to repair again. use a rubber squeegee or spreader, or a cheap paintbrush with natural bristles works well too. scrape off excess resin so you don't have to sand forever

4) as soon as your resin kicks you will want to cut the tape line, removing excess glass from the perimeter of your repair and making a nice clean area to deal with. you want the newly gelled resin to be hard enough that you can touch it with your finger and not get a sticky goo on your skin. (ewwww... that sounds... weird). but you don't want it so hard that you cant easily get a razor blade through the glass...

5) the tape and excess glass should come off in a nice clean line when you pull up the painters tape, leaving you with a clean-looking repair...

6) now you have a lot of sanding to do. use a sanding block to avoid pressing into the board and creating dimples in your deck. you will want to start with a coarse sand paper, like 80 grit.... then work your way down... 200 grit, then 400 and finally 600 grit wetsand paper with water... by the time you are down to the 400 and 600 you should have a smooth transition between the old glass job on your board and your new repair. the 600 will take out the scratches from the heavy duty sand paper... if you really want your repair to look pro, you will want to polish your repair... but if you are like me, once it's waterproof and smooth, i am on my way to the ocean to get some waves.....